2nd Amendment and Gun Laws

I’d like to ask a question of those readers whose letters were published in The Times on Aug. 26 in response to your editorial “Guns, a History Lesson” (Aug. 17).

One reader feels that the Second Amendment of our Bill of Rights gives him the right to own and bear arms “to protect individuals from the abuses of government.”

Another reader suggests it is “to protect us from attack from outside or within, such as our own government or armed forces gone berserk.”

Actually, I would like to ask these gentlemen (and others who hold the same point of view) two questions:

When was the last time U.S. citizen needed a gun to protect himself or herself from their government or its armed forces? Probably 1776--212 years ago.

When was the last time that a U.S. citizen was robbed, terrorized or murdered by an illegal, unregistered, privately owned gun? Let’s see . . . 5 seconds ago, 10 seconds ago, 15 seconds ago, 20 seconds ago, and on and on, ad infinitum .

PAUL R. KIDD

Woodland Hills